Lib Politics Rodeo February 10, 2015

Yesterday, we announced our first two campaigns of 2015.

In both campaigns we are providing support to the library staff and boards with coaching and training for information only campaigns and also to the local ballot committees with strategic support for their vote yes campaigns. This is the fist time that New Orleans Public Library has had a funding measure on the ballot since before Hurricane Katrina. Winning this election will give them the opportunity to open the last branch closed post-Katrina, and also expand their hours, collections, services and staffing across the system. The second campaign is River East (IL) where a win means expanding the collection and services while doing much needed repairs. One system serves almost 400,000 people; the other just under 6,000.

Mid last week, our 'deep dive' look at 2014 library campaigns that we did with Library Journal was released. Published during the American Library Association Midwinter Conference, the article discusses the surprising reasons that libraries loose, and what to do about it. Props to our intern Rachel Korman and exec director John Chrastka for the analysis and discussion. They did an excellent job of examining the necessity of timing and local campaigning to garner Yes votes, but also looked carefully at the 22% of libraries that lost in 2014.

In April, we will be doing webinars on library campaign basics. We will cover everything from the 101 to the day after the election. We are excited that makingithappen.us is a platform that we can reach more people on than speaking at national conferences. The webinars are only $25. We hope you will join us to learn more about what you can do to successfully fund your library.

We have more exciting news coming soon. Join us next week for another round up. Happy trails!